Cork shopping centre reopens after €30m fire damage

A Co Cork shopping centre which was closed for more than a year after a fire caused some €30 million in damage is to reopen on Thursday.

Douglas Village Shopping Centre, home to 46 retail units employing hundreds of people, was partly destroyed after a vehicle caught fire on the first floor of its car park on August 31st, 2019.

The blaze, which reached an estimated temperature of 1,000 degrees, destroyed 49 cars and caused steel girders in the structure to buckle. Engineers said much of the car park was unsafe, and it has been demolished and rebuilt.

Bartosz Mieszala, who manages the centre, said 13 units providing essential services would open today in line with Covid-19 guidelines.

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“There has been a lot of work and preparation over the last couple of weeks, but finally now we are almost there,” he told Cork’s 96FM.

Mr Mieszala said he hoped that when the Level 5 restrictions are lifted in December that other units in the centre will be able to resume normal trading.

The refurbishment of the centre was halted by the initial pandemic restrictions in March, and the planned reopening in late August or early September was pushed back as a result.

“It is a very uncertain time for a lot of businesses, and a lot of businesses are trying to reinvent how they do business in the current times, but we are confident we have a strong scheme and people have always traded well here,” Mr Mieszala said.

Legal action

Avoncore Ltd and Canmont Ltd, trading as the Douglas Village Shopping Centre, have commenced legal action against four named entities over the blaze, which they allege began when an Opel Zafira B Model caught fire.

The actions are against Leeson Motors Ltd, which allegedly distributed and sold the 06C-registered car, and German-based Adam Opel GmbH, which manufactured and designed the vehicle.

The other defendants are Opel Automobile GmbH and Vauxhall Motors Ltd in the UK, who the plaintiffs say were responsible for dealing with aspects of Zafira B models being recalled.

It is claimed that the owner of the vehicle, having parked in the car park, was about to get out to go shopping when she noticed smoke at the front of the car. It is claimed the car went on fire, causing a “major conflagration”, resulting in “immense damage” to the centre.